Starting in the Basement

A boulangerie/patisserie opened up in Portland a few years ago that changed my life.  It is called St. Honore and the first thing I ever had there was a bag of chouquettes.  Chouquettes are small sugar puffs made from choux pastry.  Choux pastry is also used in eclairs and cream puffs because it puffs up and leaves an empty space.

It never occurred to me to try to make these little pieces of sugary heaven until this last trip to France.  Frenchie’s sister mentioned that it was easy to make and so I went on a hunt for the special sugar used on top called pearl sugar.  I knew where to buy it in Paris but we never made it due to all the family and walking and dodging tourists.  As soon as we got back I ordered the special sugar from King Arthur’s Flour.  It arrived quickly and soon I was ready to go.

The first attempt went badly.  Actually it was a complete disaster.  I followed David Lebovitz’s recipe as it was written and I think he missed a step.  I prefer to blame his recipe rather than the fact that I pretty much knew I was doing it wrong as I did it but I continued on as if everything would end up ok in the end (one of my major and constant flaws in logic).

After watching some web videos realizing I have a TON of this pearl sugar I decided to give it another try.  Thank goodness I did because it totally worked!

The recipe is a little strange because you boil water and butter and then dump flour into the hot mixture.  After mixing in the flour you add four eggs and you are ready to go.  Well, the first time I added the flour and it did not turn into a dough.  Apparently I was supposed to continue to cook the dough until it formed a ball and more of the water evaporates.  Instead I just added the eggs and kept stirring, hoping some sort of dough would form.  Well, magic didn’t happen and I had to dump the whole thing, but I now know what not to do.

The second time went much better.  The dough came together and I followed Good Eat’s advice of adding the eggs with the stand mixer.  After adding the flour and cooking it a little I transferred the dough to the mixer bowl.  After cooling I added the eggs one by one until a perfect dough was formed.  I used a plastic baggy to pipe the dough into small mounds and baked about 20 minutes. They turned out perfectly!

I knew they were good when Frenchie ate almost all 45 of them in an hour and wanted to bring the rest into the movies with us!

See that hole in the middle?  Next time I will be filling that with pastry cream.  Yummmm

Chouquettes

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup bread flour* (5 3/4 ounces)
• 4 eggs
• Pearl sugar or mini chocolate chips for sprinkling on top
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon milk

In a medium saucepan boil the butter, water, salt and sugar.  Take pan off the heat and add the flour all at once.  Stir over low heat until the dough forms a ball and is no longer sticky to the touch.  Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer or a larger bowl and let cool for 5 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time and mix well.  Once all the eggs are mixed in, chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 425 F and transfer dough to piping bag.  Pipe out a mound the size of an unshelled walnut or use two teaspoons to transfer to the pan.  Mix the egg yolk with the milk and brush onto each mound.  Sprinkle the pearl sugar or chocolate chips liberally on each.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.  Turn off the oven and open the door a little.  Leave chouquettes in the oven for another 10 minutes.  If you are going to fill them, poke a little hole in the side with a knife while still warm, then let cool.

*  I used bread flour as suggested by Alton Brown but all the other recipes I saw said to use regular all purpose flour.  Bread flour worked really well for me so I will probably stick with that!